Feb. 13, 2018, 8:17 a.m.

President Trump’s top intelligence advisor told senators Feb. 13 that he expects Russia to mount an operation to influence U.S. voters in the November 2018 election.

President Trump’s top intelligence advisor told senators on Tuesday that he expects Russia to mount an operation to influence U.S. voters in the November midterm elections, much as it did during the 2016 presidential campaign.

“We expect Russia to continue using propaganda, social media, false flag personas, sympathetic spokesmen and other means to influence, to try to build on its wide range of operations, and exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States,” Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on global threats.

He added, “There should be no doubt that Russia perceives its past efforts as successful and views the 2018 U.S. midterm elections as a potential target.”

Feb. 12, 2018, 4:45 p.m.

As the Senate opened a much-anticipated immigration debate Monday, lawmakers may be embarking on something rarely attempted anymore in Congress: openly and collaboratively legislating.

Not in several years has there been a freewheeling process to draft and vote on important legislation. In the increasingly partisan climate, bills are typically crafted behind doors and either accepted or rejected, as seen in the GOP's recent tax-cut plan or the ill-fated attempts to repeal Obamacare.

White House budgets are intended to serve as more of a blueprint for presidential priorities than a funding document. That allowed Republicans who have railed against red ink for the past decade laregly keep quiet about Trump’s $4.3-trillion proposal.

Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming, the Republican chairman of the Budget Committee, reminded reporters that it is only the “first step” in the annual budget process that will ultimately be decided by Congress.

Feb. 12, 2018, 10:19 a.m.

An Obamacare sign used by UniVista Insurance in Miami to sell health plans. (Getty Images)

Even as prospects for a new Republican push to roll back the Affordable Care Act remain dim, the White House is doubling down on the repeal effort, calling for massive cuts to healthcare assistance in its 2019 budget.

The budget blueprint – which lays out a host of Trump administration healthcare proposals – outlines nearly $1.5 trillion in cuts over the next decade to Medicaid, the government health plan for the poor.

And it would slash almost $700 billion in federal healthcare spending that helps low- and moderate-income Americans who rely on insurance marketplaces created by the 2010 healthcare law, often called Obamacare.

Feb. 12, 2018, 9:58 a.m.

Ignoring warnings from diplomats and even a powerful GOP-controlled Senate committee, the Trump administration went ahead Monday with drastic cuts to the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, the two most important arms of American diplomacy.

The budget unveiled by the White House allots $39.3 billion for the department of about 24,000 foreign and civil service employees and USAID — down from about $55 billion last year.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had embraced the cuts when the White House first proposed them, and was met with steep criticism from the foreign policy establishment and numerous members of Congress. The Senate Appropriations Committee last fall said the reductions “serve only to weaken America’s standing in the world.”

Feb. 12, 2018, 9:44 a.m.

Street names, apparently, are not immune to the diplomatic tit-for-tat between Moscow and Washington.

Moscow’s city government announced Monday that it will consider a request from a Russian parliament member to change the postal address of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to 1 North American Dead-end.

The name change request seems to be retaliation for Washington’s announcement last month that it would name part of Wisconsin Avenue in front of the Russian Embassy Nemtsov Plaza after slain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.

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Feb. 12, 2018, 8:35 a.m.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson started a Middle East tour Monday in Cairo, where he declined to publicly criticize Egyptian officials who have arrested or disqualified several opposition candidates for elections scheduled in March.

“We have always advocated for free and fair elections, transparent elections, not just for Egypt but in any country,” Tillerson told reporters after meeting with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry.

He ignored a second question about whether the United States would consider withholding military aid if the presidential elections do not meet standards for fairness and transparency.

Feb. 9, 2018, 7:00 a.m.

Donald Trump long thought the phrase "Drain the Swamp" was a little hokey, he has confessed to crowds. Yet it stayed. If Frank Sinatra had to croon "My Way," even when he tired of it, Trump reasoned aloud, Trump could belt out his crowd-pleasing catchphrase.

More than a year into his presidency, Trump mouths the words a little less often. But rather than completely kill off a slogan that once rivaled "Build the Wall" in the Trump repertoire, he has done something more subversive: He has drained it of its meaning.

Trump himself has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than a dozen women. He denies the allegations.

Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused - life and career are gone. Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?